Conventionally, in an image-signal-processing apparatus for performing a series of processing pieces such as noise removal, improvements in image quality, etc. on an image signal and outputting this image signal, it has been thought of implementing this series of processing pieces by using, for example, plural functional blocks such as a substrate, a chip, and a device. In this case, by adding a functional block, the functions can be upgraded. In the case of adding the functional block, a control block that controls the functional block needs to acquire control information required to control the added functional block.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11-53289 describes a technique by which when a peripheral device is connected to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, driver software stored in a storage device of this peripheral device is automatically installed in a storage device of the information processing apparatus so that the information processing apparatus can control the peripheral device.
If a control block transmits an intra-functional-block command that directly controls operations of a functional block to control the functional block, it is necessary for the control block to acquire control information of a version-upgraded functional block as in the case of adding the functional block as described above, even when the functional block is replaced with the version-upgraded functional block to upgrade the function thereof.